text:
Icebox Cupcakes Recipe
Wafers: In a bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and
In the bowl of your electric mixer
(or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and margarine
until well blended. Add the sugars and vanilla extract and beat on high
speed for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the egg
white. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.
Place the dough on your counter and, using your hands, evenly form the dough into a log shape that is
about 9 inches (23 cm) long. Carefully wrap the dough in aluminum foil,
parchment paper or wax paper and fold or twist the ends. Try not to flatten the
log. Refrigerate until firm. This will take several hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven
to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the
oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using a sharp
knife, slice the log into about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick wafers. Place the wafers on the baking sheet spacing, about
1 inch (2.5 cm) apart. Bake for approximately 10 - 12 minutes or until the
the cookies puff and the tops of the cookies have cracks (ripples). Remove from oven and let
the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about
5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Can be stored
in an airtight container, at room temperature, for about 10 days. They can also
be frozen. Makes 36 chocolate wafers.
Icebox Cupcakes: In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk
attachment, (or with a wire whisk) beat the cream with the sugar and vanilla
until soft peaks form. Take one chocolate wafer and spread a scant tablespoon of
whipped cream over the top of the cookie. Cover with another cookie, then
another layer of cream, another cookie, and a final layer of cream. Cover and place in the
refrigerator for several hours, or overnight. Decorate with shaved
chocolate or fresh berries.
Makes 12 Icebox Cupcakes.
for Demonstration Video
Chocolate Wafers:
1 cup (130 grams) all purpose
1/2 cup
(50 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)
1/4 teaspoon
baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
tablespoons (45 grams) unsalted
butter, room temperature
tablespoons (45 grams) margarine or a buttery spread
2/3 cup (140 grams)
packed light
1/2 cup (100 grams) white granulated
1 teaspoon pure
vanilla extract
1 large
(30 grams)
Cream Filling:
1 1/2 cup (360 ml) cold
heavy cream (double cream) (35-40% butterfat content)
3 tablespoon (45 grams)
granulated white sugar (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon pure
vanilla extract


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Quick Links
Nov 30, 2012, 8:43 am
221 comments
Several store customers and clerk saw winning ticket, verified winning numbers
Apparent winner purchased ticket in Arizona but checked ticket in Maryland
Includes video report
A man, who appeared to be a construction or highway worker, walked into a Prince George's County, Maryland, Exxon Thursday afternoon and — according to witnesses — walked out a multi-multi-millionaire.
Employees and customers at Marlboro Village Exxon are still buzzing from the remarkable scene they witnessed this afternoon.
Surveillance cameras show a tall, bald man donned in a neon yellow outfit walk slowly in, in no particular rush. He digs deep into a pocket to pull out various lottery tickets. He checks to see if he won anything.
Seconds later, he starts pumping his arms. He gives the ticket, which he says he purchased in Arizona, to clerk Nagassi Ghebre, who says the winning numbers were on the Powerball ticket.
The apparent winner of one of the biggest jackpots of all time quickly turns to a customer for further verification.
If this one of the two national winners, this mystery man gets, after splitting the cash option with a winner from Missouri, nearly $200 million.
One customer said he heard the possible winner may be in the military.
According to witnesses the man did not buy the ticket in Maryland. He merely showed people what looked like a winning ticket.
According to an Arizona Lottery official, the ticket was purchased in a store near Scottsdale. The man would have to return to Arizona to turn in his winning ticket within 180 days.
VIDEO: Watch surveillance video of the man reacting to his huge win
Related Links
ABC News, Lottery Post Staff
We'd love to see your comments here! Register for a FREE membership — it takes just a few moments — and you'll be able to post comments here and on any of our forums. If you're already a member, you can Log In to post a comment.
"Do everything you can. Then, leave the rest to luck."
I have family in Upper Marlboro. Is he a cousin?
If this guy really is the winner, this is some of the coolest lottery video ever.
Check the State Lottery Report CardWhat grade did your lottery earn?
Sign the Petition for True Lottery DrawingsHelp eliminate computerized drawings!
WOW!!!! maybe he was visiting for there for the Holiday last week and bought his ticket on Sunday like I did. I know when my sister in-law came she bought tickets from Maryland and checked them here as well. So anything is possible.
I Love Pink & Green 1908
This is what I seen on the News this morning. He must have been traveling through ARIZONA and purchase the ticket.
That is absolutely cool. Don't think I would be showing everybody for fear of getting robbed. Lol
dpoly1 - Playing the lottery to save the jobs of those that build, transport, sell & maintain luxury items! -
Eschew Poverty ........... Vote Conservative!
wow its a long drive from maryland to arizona, safe drive home mystery man
plus he made a big mistake, he didnt sign the back of it, the moment he won.
" Still swinging, still missing " 2014 = -1016; 2015= -1409; 2016 = -1171; 2017 = -1257 ; 2018 = - 1380 = TOT = - 6233
keno historic = -2291 ; 2015= -603; 2016= -424; 2017 =-427; 2018= -223 TOT = -3968
Perhaps he was visiting the casino near Fountain Hills and stopped for a sandwich and a QP?
It will be interesting to see what guy who shows up in Arizona with winning ticket looks like.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
6% tax on non residents. for arizona. he may want to move lol theres a 1.92M difference in state taxes. for him
I think you have to have lived there for 6 months to be considered a resident.
This guy is lucky he is built like an NFL linebacker because handing that ticket to the clerk and the other people has got to be one of the stupidest and most dangerous things I have ever seen done. Just announcing it was dangerous enough.
He's not wearing a mcdonalds uniform so im pretty convinced he won something.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
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In a vast cosmic experiment equivalent to hitting "redial," astronomers in a dozen countries are aiming telescopes to listen in once again on some of the stars that were part of the world's first search for alien life 50 years ago.
The coordinated signal-searching campaign began this month to mark the 50th anniversary of Project Ozma, a 1960 experiment that was christened the world's first real attempt in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence or SETI.
Like Project Ozma, which got its name from a character in L. Frank Baum's series of books about the Land of Oz, the new search is called Project Dorothy.
Project Ozma was conducted by astronomer Frank Drake of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. Drake is also famous for devising the Drake equation, which predicts the number of alien civilizations with whom we might be able to communicate. The formula is based on factors including the rate of star formation in the galaxy and the percentage of stars thought to have planets. Making educated guesses for some of the equation's terms, scientists have used it to predict we could find evidence of ET intelligence within the next 25 years
"It is thrilling for me to witness the beginnings of Project Dorothy, the continuation of my search of 50 years ago," Drake said in a SETI announcement. "To have so many talented people using so many telescopes in this new search, with the electronics and computer equipment of today, is a joyful thing to me. The equipment of today is far better than what we could have 50 years ago and will result in both very much better and very much more data than could be obtained then."
The anniversary observations, which began Nov. 5, will continue throughout the month. Astronomers in Australia, Japan, Korea, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Argentina and the United States are taking the first shifts, searching for signs of an intelligent civilization from a few nearby stars. [ Q&A with SETI Pioneer Jill Tarter ]
Astronomer Shin-ya Narusawa of Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory in Japan, who launched Project Dorothy, said: "Two of the original stars from Project Ozma Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani are the nearest solar-type stars in the northern hemisphere. Therefore, these two stars were the best SETI targets a half century ago. They remain the symbol of Project Ozma and are two of the target stars for Project Dorothy."
The new search includes some particularly promising targets for extraterrestrial intelligence, including stars with known planets, which modern telescopes were only recently able to detect. The scientists are aiming for stellar systems where planets are thought to orbit at roughly the right distance from their suns to hold liquid water and thus, possibly, life.
"Project Dorothy vividly demonstrates just how far SETI has come in the past 50 years," said the SETI Institute's Douglas Vakoch, who is a member of Project Dorothy's working group. "The lessons learned through Project Dorothy provide critical preparation for the day we finally detect a signal from another civilization."
Though the searches undertaken by astronomers at the SETI Institute and elsewhere over the past 50 years have not found indications of little green men, experts say it's too early to give up hope.
"Over the past 50 years our searches have not yet produced the discovery we all hope for," Drake said. "This is understandable in our vast and awesome universe it will take long, painstaking and comprehensive searches before we will have a good chance of success. This is the major lesson learned from previous searches. Project Dorothy is a major step in meeting the challenge created by this lesson."
- Ten Alien Encounters Debunked, Strangest Alien Planets
- If Aliens Exist, They Will Probably Love Bach
- 50 Years of Listening for Aliens: Q & A With SETI Pioneer Jill Tarter
© 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.


text:
Caroline Kennedy would back Clinton
TOKYO — Caroline Kennedy says she could "absolutely" see herself endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton for president but she has to decide soon whether to run.
Kennedy says she hopes Clinton will run. Kennedy was speaking in an interview with ABC News Thursday from Japan about President Barack Obama's visit to the country, where she now is serving as U.S. ambassador.
Kennedy and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, were maintaining a high profile Thursday, keeping close to the president's side as he made his diplomatic visits.
( VIDEO: Obama's trip to East Asia)
Kennedy endorsed Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary over Clinton. At the time she said she believed Obama could be a president like her father.


text:
Include other Activity Types in Profile Stats besides Cycling/Running
I went for a back country ski. I would like to have it show up as part or my exercise and workout schedule because its motivating to see it there and I can compare winter and summer routines. My heart rate was at a training rate - up to 170 bpm - and we went as hard as we might on a ride or a run. It 'doesn't count' toward my fitness motivational charts as is. This is a request to allow us to determine if we want a workout to count toward our training. As it is only rides and runs count. I think it would be as easy as a box to check - self determination of 'workout' status. I would then include SUP, backcountry ski trips, hikes and other intense physical activities.


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Square Foam Candle Holder
I'll be the first to admit that the words "foam" and "candle" don't typically belong in the same sentence! But in this case, there is actually a glass candle holder between the glass and the foam. This is a great project for older girls who are more likely to be allowed to burn candles at home. The design of papers and embellishments used can be altered to match any room decor, favorite color or theme, or holiday!
Want to share photos of your troop and finished Square Foam Candle Holder? Contact Us!
Materials Needed:
- 5″x5″x5″ white craft foam block
- 2 12″ x 12″ scrapbooking papers for the base
- 20″ of 1-½" wide accenting grosgrain ribbon
- 2-¼" square x 2-½" tall square glass votive holder
- Votive candles
- Glue sticks
- Matching embellishments
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Serrated knife
- Plastic spoons
- Place the glass votive holder on top of the craft foam block and trace with a pencil. Use the serrated knife to cut on the traced line, cutting down approximately 2″. Use a spoon to remove the foam from the cavity and shape it squarely. Make sure the votive holder fits before moving on.
- Cut the base scrapbooking paper into two 6″ x 12″ pieces. One side at a time, apply the glue to the block and wrap the paper around, smoothing to ensure there are no air pockets or wrinkles. Glue the second piece around the other side and trim at the seam.
- Fold and glue the edges at the top and bottom of the block. Cut at the corners to remove any excess.
- For the top and bottom of the block, cut two 5″ squares from the scrapbooking paper and glue to the top and bottom. For the top, cut slits in a pie pattern on the back covering the opening of the block. Glue and fold to the inside of the opening. To line the opening, cut a 2″x9″ piece of paper. Apply the glue and inser the paper.
- Attach the grosgrain ribbon around the base of the block to accent, overlapping the ends.
- Replace the glass votive holder into the block. To add another design touch, display your foam block on top of contrasting fabric, furniture, or paper to really pop.
Safety Tips!
- Adults should supervise the use of the serrated knife.


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Saturdays edition of Trunkline 2012 reveals where to watch tonight's debate, photo of Rick Perry's debate preparation, Buddy Roemer's bitter twitter, the California Supreme Court's ruling for Mexican flag and against our American flag, Newtmentum, the Obama Administration's praise of Jon Corzine's economic expertise, the guest lineup and topics of this Sunday's morning news programs, this week's Cinema Politico Saturday night movie feature, and as always, more.
Watch tonight's CBS/National Journal Republican presidential debate on foreign policy live here, starting at 8:00 PM ET
Hours before the CBS/ National Journal foreign policy debate and Rick Perry Tweets: "Debate prep in Spartanburg, SC !! "http://t.co/uwdY27IN"
A frustrated and inconsequential Buddy Roemer tweets "I've decided to go to the movies tonight instead of tweeting the debate. Less BS." Aren't we bitter? Maybe he should join OWS protesters and watch the debate with them.
Some Advice for Newt Gingrich from White House 2012
Turning an elephant into a Newt? Newtmentum kicks in!
10 character assassination attempts by liberals
NPR runs nasty hit piece on Herman Cain
Cain: I wouldn't be Romney's VP — but I'd consider being his secretary of defense
Ironic Flashback, 2009: Biden touts Jon Corzine as economic go-to guy for Team Obama
If this doesn't piss you off, nothing will: California Students: Court Rules Mexican Flag Okay on May 5th – American Flag Not Okay on May 5th
With Debt There is No DemocracySunday Morning Political News Program Guest lineup:
ABC's "This Week" — Roundtables on politics and Iran. NBC's "Meet the Press" — 2012 GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann; Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the Democratic National Committee. CBS' "Face the Nation" — 2012 GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Govs. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., and Haley Barbour, R-Miss. CNN's "State of the Union" — Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas; Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "Fox News Sunday" — Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.; Gov. Tom Corbett, R-Pa.; Penn State student body President T.J. Bard; former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris.
- Politics at White House 2012′s Cinema Politico: This Saturday night's political movie pick……. W
W takes viewers through Bush's eventful life — his struggles and triumphs, how he found both his wife and his faith, and of course the critical days leading up to Bush's decision to invade Iraq. Oliver Stone's biographical take on the life of George W. Bush, chronicles a liberal view of George W. Bush's life from his wild and carefree days in college, to his military service, to his governorship of Texas and role in the oil business, his 2000 candidacy for president, his first turbulent four years, and his 2004 re-election campaign.
Filed under: Debates, Trunkline 2012, White House 2012 Cinema Politico: The movie of the week | Tagged: 10 liberal hit jobs, 10 people liberals have tried to assassisnate the character of, 2012 Presidential Election, ABC's this Week, about the candidates, Anthony Del Pellegrino, breaking election news, Buddy Roemer calls the cbs republican presidential debate BS, Buddy Roemer seems bitter about the debates, Cain won't be Romney's VP, California Cinco de Mayo high school flag ruling, California supreme court approves the mexican flag over tha American flag, California supreme court favors the mexican flag over the American flag, California supreme court rules against the american flag, Campaign advice for news gingrich, CBS republican presidential debate on foreign policy, cbs republican presidential debate streaming live, CBS' Face the nation, chat room about the cbs republican presidential debate, CNN's "State of the Union", debate chat room, debt limits democracy, don't spread my wealth, election briefing, election news, election news headlines, election news summary, featured political movie of the week, Fox News Sunday, George W. Bush Biography, gop12, guests on the sunday morning news shows, Herman Cain would be Romney's secretary of defense, Hot Air AllahPundit, Human Events, Joe Biden calls Jon Corzine the economic go to guy, jon corzine scandal, kempite, Kempite Republican, liberal character assassination, link to the CBS debate, live feed of the CBSNational Journal republican presidential, live streaming video of the CBS/National Journal republican presidential debate, live streaming video of the Republican presidential debate, live webcast of the cbs republican presidential debate, livestream of the cbs foreign policy debate, Maggies notebook, movie of the week, national journal, NBC's "Meet the Press", news from the campaign trail, news summary, Newt gingrich must be humble, newt must be humble, Newtmentum, NPR attack piece on Cain, NPR attacks Cain on race, NPR hit piece on Herman Cain, Oak Hill High students in the Morgan Hill California Unified School district, Obama Adminsitration praises Jon Corzine for his economic knwohow, politicAL MOVIES, Republican news, Republican Presidential Candidates, republican presidential debate chatroom, Rick Perry goes running before debate, Rick Perry preapring for spartanburg debate, Rick Perry tweets a photo of himself jogging, Roemer tweets BS, Saturday night at the movies, Sunday Morning Political News Program Guest lineup, Sunday morning talk shows, Sunday news shows, the borking of herman cain, top 10 conservative blogs, top 10 conservative websites, top 10 election blogs, top 10 election websites, top ten conservative blogs, trunkline 2012, W with Josh Brolin, WH12, where can you watch the CBS republican presidential debate, where to watch the CBS Republican debate, where to watch the CBS Republican presidential debate, White House 2012, White House 2012 Cinema Politico, wordpress political blogs |


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Original post by National Geographic (Peyton Fleming and Brooke Barton)
California and tomatoes are synonymous. Drive along Interstate 80 near Sacramento these days and you'll see an endless parade of trucks, each filled to the brim with 26 tons of glistening succulent red tomatoes. It's so many trucks, one after another, that you begin to understand how California grows 30 percent of the world's processed tomatoes.
Many of the trucks are headed to Dixon, California, home base of a Campbell Soup processing plant that handles 240 loads of tomatoes every day – 14 million pounds, all of them for use as tomato paste and diced tomatoes that are the foundation ingredient of Prego spaghetti sauce, Pace Salsa, V8 beverages and thousands of other Campbell products.
It's a mind-boggling operation, especially when you ponder the vast amount of water that's needed for all this. The processing plant itself uses more than three million gallons a day to move, clean, and cook tomatoes. Out in the fields, growing just one pound of raw tomatoes requires about nine gallons of water. Multiply that times the 20,000 acres that are under production for Campbell and you get the idea.
Add in the fact that hundreds of other crops are also tapping into California's dwindling water supplies, and you ask yourself, "How do Campbell and its 50 independent growers manage it, and how are they preparing for a likely drier future?'
Last month, Ceres' water team got some insights during a half-day visit to the 38-year-old processing plant and two nearby farms operated by Dave Viguie and Dustin Timothy, who together grow 1,700 acres of tomatoes.
It was clear from the outset that water is on everyone's mind 24-7. Water prices, water rights, drip irrigation, and last year's dry winter are oft-repeated topics in every conversation. All have a common thread – the days of cheap limitless water supplies in California are fast approaching their end, and in districts further south in the Central Valley, are already here.
The folks at Campbell Soup know this. Which is why the company set goals last year to reduce water and fertilizer use by 20 percent per pound of tomatoes by 2020. This is on top of a 50 percent water reduction goal for its manufacturing plants. Meeting these goals falls on Daniel Sonke, who manages the company's agriculture sustainability programs.
"Dr. Dan," as he is affectionately referred to by colleagues, is looking under every rock to find savings, beginning with the processing plant and its dizzying array of conveyor belts, evaporators, heat exchangers, and water cooling towers. Water for the plant comes from four groundwater wells that are part of the Putah Creek Watershed.
Water recycling and reuse practices, among other steps, have already reduced the plant's water footprint from 4 million to 3.6 million gallons a day. "That's 10 percent in just one year. We feel pretty good about that," he said.
More improvements are anticipated as the company implements recommendations from a comprehensive audit done by a research team from UC Davis. The audit focused on maximizing water/energy efficiencies, a strategy with big environmental and financial implications, given that 35 percent of the plant's electricity use is simply for moving water.
But a far bigger footprint is the company's growers.
Campbell sources its tomatoes from independent family-owned farms, so the company cannot issue water use reductions by edict. But it can help its farmers through engagement and the power of suggestion.
"Let's focus on some key indicators and let the farmers do the rest," Sonke said, describing his philosophy.
Sonke is a big believer in talking with his stakeholders. That means spending countless hours meeting with his growers about the company's objectives and how growers can help – while reaping the benefits, too. Collecting and analyzing key performance data for each of the farmers is also enormously important. "We find that seeing how they benchmark against others gets the wheels turning," says Sonke.
One especially promising strategy is replacing sprinklers or furrow irrigation with drip irrigation. It's an expensive switch – it costs about $1,000 per acre to install the drip system underground – but the benefits are obvious. In addition to cutting water use by roughly 10 percent, it saves on fertilizer and helps farmers boost their tomato yields.
"We're seeing energy savings and we're using less water, but if we didn't have the higher yields it would be hard to justify," said Dustin Timothy, 35, who borrowed money to install drip irrigation on 500 acres.
"The driver for the drip is the economics, more tomatoes produced," David Viguie, a San Francisco transplant who has been growing tomatoes for Campbell for two decades, said matter-of-factly.
Viguie's bottom-line perspective is hugely important as Sonke and his colleagues push to integrate sustainability more deeply across the company's value chain.
"Being financially sustainable is just as important as being environmentally sustainable," said Craig Leathers, a Campbell senior agriculture representative, who works closely with all of the local farmers.
Drip adoption rates in this watershed are still lower than districts further south where water is scarcer and more expensive. Still, Sonke is encouraged by the steady uptake of drip systems; 39 percent of its growers' acres are now using drip, up from 29 percent a year ago. Next year, he hopes to get to 49 percent.
As for hitting the 20 percent agricultural water reduction goal by 2020, Sonke says he is "cautiously optimistic." Wider use of drip systems will be a key factor. On the manufacturing side, a key driver is the company's financial support on processing plant improvements. "The company is allowing us more flexibility to invest in water-savings projects. Sustainability is now allowed to have a longer payback period to achieve ROI (return on investment), which is very important," he said.
In the end, though, Sonke cannot succeed unless his growers also succeed. Satisfactory profit margins are a prerequisite of growing tomatoes more sustainably.
"There's a lot of pressure on these guys to go to higher value crops," Leathers said. "We, as a company, are always worried about losing them. We've got to keep these guys profitable."


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This month's Library Reads includes a book by a Washington author (The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah), a novel set in a library (Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern), and a memoir reviewed by one of our librarians (Educated by Tara Westover). Time to place some holds!
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Leni and her troubled family embark on a new way of life in Alaska's wilderness in 1974 – hoping this is finally the solution for her troubled, POW father. In Alaska, Leni and her family are tested and when change comes to their small community her father's anger threatens to explode and divide the town. This is a beautifully written novel, descriptive and engaging with well-developed characters and a strong sense of place. ~ Alissa Williams, Morton Public Library, Morton, IL
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Celestial and Roy are newly married professionals leaning in to a bright future when Roy is convicted of a crime he did not commit. This is not a heroes vs. villains tale with a tidy resolution. It is a complicated, messy, moving, and thought-provoking story about love, family, and the wide-reaching effects of incarceration. Book clubs get ready! ~ Jennifer Alexander, St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO
The French Girl by Lexie Elliott
Six friends from Oxford University spend an idyllic week in the French countryside that ends with a missing neighbor, the enigmatic Severine. Fast forward ten years and Severine turns up. Or rather her skeleton does in a well on the property. All six friends are suspects. Will the loyalties hold and who put Severine in the well? This is a fun, taut thriller. ~ Jennifer Dayton, Darien Library, Darien, CT
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
When Detective Falk learns that an informant went missing during a corporate team building exercise in the bush, he realizes that she tried to call him in the middle of the night. Harper once again creates a compelling, fast-paced, and atmospheric mystery set in a remote wilderness area of Australia. Perfect for fans of Nevada Barr and Paul Doiron. Highly recommended. ~ Vicki Nesting, St.Charles Parish Library, Destrehan, LA
Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella
Kinsella's newest heroine has me and married Mr. Right — now how to spend the next 68 years? When Sylvie launches Project Surprise Me, she just might find that there's always more to learn about the ones you love. Told in Kinsella's trademark, charming, relatable style. ~ Ariel Kurst, Great River Regiona Library, St. Cloud, MN
Tarnished City by Vic James
Tarnished City, a contemporary fantasy with a healthy dose of world-building, is just as disturbing as its predecessor, Gilded Cage. I couldn't resist diving deeper into the dark world of Equals and Slaves. James has pushed the characters in new ways, which makes the story riveting, intense, dark, and completely entrancing. ~Monicah Fraterna, La Porte Public Library, La Porte, IN
As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner
Beautifully written, heartbreaking story of four women in Philadelphia in 1918 during the Spanish Flu. I loved this book, as I have other books by Meissner and would highly recommend to anyone who loves historical fiction. ~ Cathy Branciforte, Ramsey Free Public Library, Ramsey, NJ
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Even though there is something extraordinary about Tom Hazard and his aging process the problems and insights he experiences as he goes through life, are universal. Love, memory, and time play tricks on us all as this novel illustrates so exquisitely. This is an engaging,sweeping love story with all the elements of a great historical/time travel novel. For fans of The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life. ~ Mary Coe, Fairfield Woods Branch Library, Fairfield, CT
Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern
Kit is a librarian who closes herself off from emotions and people until she meets Sunny, assigned to the library for community service. Add in a group of regulars in the library and the result is an absorbing story of developing friendships and the unveiling of secrets. Kit's story unfolds as we meet many quirky characters in this story of love, loss, and hope. ~ Ellen Firer, Merrick Library, Merrick, NY
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
In her memoir, Westover recounts her childhood growing up in a strict Mormon family, ruled by an erratic father, and living off the grid in Idaho. Westover compellingly sketches her years growing up, her relationships with siblings, encounters in the town nearby, and the events that eventually drove her to leave and pursue formal education. For fans of Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle. ~ Andrea Gough, Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA
Library Reads is a terrific place to get ideas for what to read. You can peruse our earlier Shelf Talk posts featuring Library Reads, and also check previous Library Reads here. If you go back a few months, the holds list will be shorter and your new favorite book might just be waiting for you on the shelf.
~ posted by Linda J.


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The fall film series of the Hope College Knickerbocker Theatre will continue with the award-winning "The Class" on Monday-Thursday, Oct. 19-22, and Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m.
Winner of the prestigious Palme D'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, "The Class" follows the year in the life of a French schoolteacher, Francois Begaudeau, working at a high school in a tough neighborhood of Paris. Cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom. As amusing and inspiring as the teenage students can be, their difficult behavior can still jeopardize any teacher's enthusiasm for the low-paying job. Francois insists on an atmosphere of respect and diligence. He is neither stuffy nor severe, and his frankness often takes the students by surprise, but his classroom ethics are put to the test when his students begin to challenge his methods.
The "Boston Herald" has said that "Laurent Cantet's award winning French entry, 'The Class,' re-creates a contentious contemporary French schoolroom and lets the fireworks begin."
Tickets are $6 for regular admission and $5 for students and senior citizens, and can be purchased at the door or in advance at the ticket office in the front lobby of the DeVos Fieldhouse. The ticket office is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890.
The DeVos Fieldhouse is located at 222 Fairbanks Ave., between Ninth and 11th streets. The Knickerbocker Theatre is located in downtown Holland at 86 E. Eighth St., between College and Columbia avenues.
The fall film series will continue with "Lemon Tree" on Monday-Friday, Nov. 16-20, at 7:30 p.m. Additional information may be obtained online by visiting https://hope.edu/arts/knick.


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LOS ANGELES: Hollywood studios, which for years have waged a war against online piracy, are now going after so-called "rogue" mobile apps that use images from movies and television shows without their permission.
Time Warner Inc Warner Bros Studio sent Google Inc a "take down" notice late last week demanding that the Internet company remove from its app store Hobbit 3D Wallpaper HD, a mobile app that uses images of the Oscar-nominated film, according to a spokesman for the studio.
Google responded to Warner's notice and removed the app within days, in the latest example of how Hollywood is stepping up its efforts to protect its intellectual property in the quickly expanding app market, which is pegged at US$20bil (RM61.88bil) in 2013. — Reuters
For many studios and other content providers, mobile apps are a new source of income and a powerful way to engage audiences, sell games and merchandise. But these revenues are threatened if developers do not pay licensing fees.
Walt Disney Co's Marvel unit, Sony Corp, Viacom Inc's Paramount, and News Corp's Twentieth Century Fox and Warner have all submitted infringement notifications to Google, according to information made available by Google and posted on ChillingEffects.org.
The apps targeted by the studios contain images from movie titles such as Clash of the Titans, Spiderman, and Green Lantern and TV shows like Glee and Gossip Girl.
A Google spokesman declined to discuss any specific take down requests. He cited the company's policy to remove apps that show clear cases of copyright infringement and then notify the app developer.
The Hobbit 3D Wallpaper HD app was developed by Any View, which did not return an e-mail from Reuters requesting comment.
Comcast's NBC Universal also issued a notice of infringement on apps using images of its film Ted, according to documents on ChillingEffects.org.
"We have spoken with studios that represent several of the properties and they are actively monitoring unlicensed mobile apps," said Reggie Pierce, chief executive officer of IP Lasso, which monitors brands on mobile apps.
IP Lasso recently surveyed 100 apps that mentioned Oscars or the Academy Awards, and found that 90% of those apps available on major app stores, like Google Play and Apple Inc's app store, contain content that may not have been authorised by studios, TV networks or other creators, said Pierce.
Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment on the specifics of any infringing apps, but said the company vets all apps before making them available.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said it is expanding its surveillance of apps that link users to sites that offer pirated films.
"Smartphone apps that provide a direct link to infringing content have become a growing problem that needs to be addressed," said Marc Miller, senior vice president for internet content protection for the MPAA.
"Not only do these apps offer access to creative content that has been illegally copied, but they also pose risks to consumers from malware and often fail to provide viewers with the quality product they could often get through a growing number of legitimate sources," he said.
About 46 billion apps were downloaded in 2012, generating US$12bil (RM37.17bil) in worldwide revenues from sales, advertising and in-app purchase, according to research firm Research and Market. The numbers of apps are expected to nearly double to 83 billion this year, and to generate $20.4bil (RM63.18bil).
"With the rise of the second screen comes a new band of villains who pose a serious threat to the entertainment industry's move to mobile," said Pierce.
"Consumers have been led to believe if an app is available through iTunes or Google Play, then it must be safe." — Reuters
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Today, (as I explore the island of Maui) I have a guest post from author Terri Tiffany. I met Terri 6 years ago (time sure goes fast) when I was blogging at my other place, Connecting Stories. I've always been inspired by Terri's writing and her tenacity! She's also an excellent photographer and she picked up guitar around the same time that I purchased my first one! I'd say we were meant to connect. Her first novel, The Mulligan, was lovely and I'm looking forward to reading her latest release, The Bend. Enjoy, my friends.
Ever receive a challenge in the middle of the night?
Two years ago, I opened a fresh document and typed one sentence: "She was perfect."
My tenth novel. Would this be the one I'd free myself to let go and write the story I wanted to write? Until that time, my novels always carried a hint of people and situations I knew first-hand. I had never pushed myself to write a story from pure imagination.
The Bend became that challenge.
But first I needed a main character with a trait most people don't have. Since my hobby is photography, I gave Kate Snow that occupation. With a twist. She could see details in her photographs other people couldn't. Then I needed a place where her gift, curse or blessing, might transform her and those around her. The town of Bend became reality. I also wanted the town to come alive as much as my characters. That's why I called it The Bend instead of Bend. It's a place most of us wouldn't want to spend a night.
It wasn't easy for me to create a story purely from my imagination but once I introduced Seth, the reporter, the story took off because I knew my pair of main characters would play off each other perfectly. He was intent on persuing strong goals of his own and reminded me of that person who wants to get ahead in life—no matter the cost to others—but with one endearing trait—he soon cared about Kate.
Finally, I needed one more twist—a character who would threaten every normal facet Kate and Seth believed about life.
Meet The Trainer
Again I needed to dig deep inside myself to unbury this character. I write clean suspense. The challenge to make The Trainer believable without all the gore hit me every day as I opened my computer. With amazing help from my critique partners, beta readers, and editor, he took shape.
What did I learn from writing this novel? Never be afraid of the stories in my head and to feel free to challenge myself to write without worrying that someone will quiet that voice that wakes me in the night.
And most of all, my desire is God will do with the story as He wishes
It's that final part that keeps me writing. Already, I have seen Him use The Bend in a positive way and it isn't published yet.
My challenge for you: Are you writing what God puts in your heart or are you following the crowd? Are you writing what is popular or the story that wakes you at night?
I might never write another book like The Bend but I'm happy I did. This story gave back to me the thrill I experienced when I wrote my first story in fifth grade. Bringing The Bend to life through publication gives me hope that others might get excited to write their middle-of-the night story too.
Terri Tiffany
Author of The Bend
The Bend releases on February 17, however you can
Pre-order at The Bend on Amazon
Connect with Terri on Facebook


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"I am a Muslim," Obama Tells Egyptian Foreign Minister Gheit
Islamic Coup on the White House
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama pose for a photo during a reception at the Metropolitan Museum in New York with Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and H.E. Laila Kamal El Din SalahEgyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said he had a one-on-one meeting with Obama, in which President Obama told him that he was still a Muslim, the son of a Muslim father, the stepson of Muslim stepfather, that his half brothers in Kenya are Muslims, and that he was sympathetic towards the Muslim agenda.
Finally, during the week of 14-18th of January 2010, just on the eve of my winter tour to the US, Rachel picked up a Nile TV broadcast in which Egyptian Foreign Minister Abul Gheit said on the "Round Table Show" that he had had a one on one meeting with Obama who swore to him that he was a Moslem, the son of a Moslem father and step-son of Moslem step-father, that his half-brothers in Kenya were Moslems, and that he was loyal to the Moslem agenda. He asked that the Moslem world show patience. Obama promised that once he overcame some domestic American problems (Healthcare), that he would show the Moslem world what he would do with Israel. (more here)This is according to Israel Today here. Here is the passage from the May 2010 issue of "Israel Today." It is on page 3 in an article titled "Obama, a 'Strategic Catastrophe,'" by Aviel Schneider:
This is akin to an SS officer getting elected president during WW II. Every country in the free world must be cognizant of such a catastrophic sea change in the leadership of the free world (as witnessed by events over the past year). This changes everything. He took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and yet he has gone around the world promoting Islam, the sharia (Islamic law).The feeling among the Israeli public is that Obama is appeasing the Muslim world at the expense of Israel. "The American President told me in confidence that he is a Muslim," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Nile TV.
That could explain why Obama has instructed that the term"Islamic extremism" no longer be used in official government documents and statements. Furthermore, the US is now accusing Israel of harming American interests in the Middle East. General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, said Israel's intransigence on resolving the conflict with the Palestinians is endangering US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the US Congress considers Obama's behavior toward Netanyahu humiliating. Three-quarters of the House of Representatives, 337 of 435 members, signed a bipartisan letter to Clinton expressing"deep concern over recent tension" between the two countries, and demanding that it be smoothed over quickly and in private.
"Obama is a real problem for Israel," a seniorofficial told told Yediot. "He is Israel's biggest strategic catastrophe."The newspaper also quoted another official who believes that for the first time Washington has switched sides. "The Obama White House is putting pressure only on Israel but does not expect anything from the Palestinians," he said. "These American demands are unacceptable."Egyptian minister: Obama told me he is a Muslim News that Matters hat tip PVObama told me he is still a Muslim, who supports the Muslim agenda.
This was a statement by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Nile-TV. It was made on the «Round table show».
This is the statement recorded:
Adul Gheit said he had a one-on-one meeting with Obama, where the US President told him that He was still a Muslim, the son of a Muslim father, the step son of Muslim stepfather, that his half brothers in Kenya are Muslims, and that he was sympathetic towards the Muslim agenda.
Adul Gheit claimed Obama told the Arabs to show patience. Obama promised that once he overcame some domestic issues, like the Health care reform, he would show the Muslim World how to deal with Israel.
Source: Israeli magazine, Israel today.
The alleged exchange between Obama and Gheit would almost certainly have happened in early January 2010, when Gheit was in Washington, D.C. regarding "Mideast peace talks."
On Thursday, January 7, 2010, the Associated Press reported that "Clinton and Mitchell [were] scheduled to meet" with Gheit on Friday, January 8, 2010: ABC news here.
On Friday, January 8, 2010, Hillary Clinton and Gheit spoke with each other. The U.S. Department of State has provided video before the meeting: Department of State here.
On Saturday, January 9, 2010, NPR spoke with Gheit about his visit: NPR.org (much thanks to Grant for the links).
This is devastating news, and yet no media is covering it. A stealth jihad on the White House. Remember, during his campaign, I and others were excoriated for using Obama's middle name. We were accused of implying he was a crypto-Muslim. We could not discuss his background, his Islamic schooling, his ties to Islam. However, I have meticulously documented his Muslim background in my soon-to-be-released book: The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (buy it now).
It became all too clear after his election how proud he was of his Muslim name, background and family. He made this plain when he gave his very first interview to Muslim media and boasted of these things. But bear in mind, it was verboten to speak of such things during the presidential campaign. That was the level of deceit and obfuscation and taqiya.
Al-Tabari's (d. 923) famous tafsir (exegesis of the Koran) is a standard and authoritative reference work in the entire Muslim world. Regarding 3:28, he writes: "If you [Muslims] are under their [infidels'] authority, fearing for yourselves, behave loyally to them, with your tongue, while harboring inner animosity for them. … Allah has forbidden believers from being friendly or on intimate terms with the infidels in place of believers — except when infidels are above them [in authority]. In such a scenario, let them act friendly towards them." Regarding 3:28, Ibn Kathir (d. 1373, second in authority only to Tabari) writes, "Whoever at any time or place fears their [infidels'] evil may protect himself through outward show." As proof of this, he quotes Muhammad's close companion, Abu Darda, who said, "Let us smile to the face of some people [non-Muslims] while our hearts curse them"; another companion, al-Hassan, said, "Doing taqiyya is acceptable till the Day of Judgment [i.e., in perpetuity]. Source: "War and Peace - and Deceit - in Islam" by Raymond IbrahimObama is a boldfaced liar. Why? Why lie if you have nothing to hide?
Of course, if Obama believes himself a Muslim, it was taqiya -- deception or lies to advance Islam. Which he performed brilliantly during his election: he lied with brazen contempt. And clearly his Islamic Jew-hatred is made painfully clear in his stunning rebuke of Israel.
Is it any wonder that his counter terror adviser speaks arabic, calls Jerusalem al quds and calls jihad a "legitimate tenet of Islam"?
Adul Gheit claimed Obama told the Arabs to show patience. Obama promised that once he overcame some domestic issues, like the Health care reform, he would show the Muslim World how to deal with Israel.We know that Gheit met with Obama in April 2010 in DC -- check out White House.gov:
President Barack Obama welcomes the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Aboul Gheit to the Nuclear Security Summit April 12, 2010,in Washington
World Leaders and Heads of Delegation Attending the Nuclear Security Summit Arab Republic of EgyptThey met more than once. Gheit had a private meeting with Obama in May 2009.
His Excellency Ahmed Aboul Gheit
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Egypt: Obama "The Boy King"
Worse yet, Gheit just last month called Israel "the enemy." This after Israel gave them the Sinai (which Israel had won in a defensive war and defended through another one) with all its oil in return for "peace."
Let's review:
March 2009, Obama declares the "war on terror" is over despite a dramatic increase in jihad war ops.
March 2009, he floats the idea that he will talk to violent, genocidal Hamas.
March 2009, he demands, recruits and insists that more Muslim Americans work in the Obama administration.
April 2009, Obama tells Europe to admit Islamic Turkey into EU, much to the consternation of the Europeans.
April 2009, Obama demands non-Muslims respect Islam (despite our differences) in a speech in Turkey.
April 2009, Obama in a speech from Turkey: "We are not a Christian nation."
April 2009, Dalia Mogahed, the first hijab-clad senior adviser to Obama on Muslim affairs says in an interview with terrorist- and jihad-supporting Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi's website, "Many have claimed that terrorists have 'hijacked Islam'. I disagree. I think Islam is safe and thriving in the lives of Muslims around the world. What the terrorists have been allowed to take over are Muslim grievances."
In April 2009, Obama lays groundwork for a partnership with Hamas.
May 2009, Obama promises to offer his "personal commitment" to Muslims.
May 2009, Obama calls America "one of the largest Muslim countries on the planet."
June 2009, Obama invites the Muslim Brotherhood, violent global jihadist group whose sole objective is a universal caliphate, to his speech to the ummah (Muslim community) in Cairo.
June 2009, Obama makes a stunning speech to the Muslim world from Al Azhar University in Cairo. It defies explanation.
July 2009, Obama reaches out to the violent jihadists of Hezb'allah.
July 2009, Obama creates a new office at the State department, Outreach to the Worldwide Muslim community, reporting directly to Hillary Clinton.
Obama promises to close GITMO.
Obama is rebuked when plans are revealed for CIA prosecutions for 911 interrogations: Seven Ex-chiefs of CIA Oppose Case Review: ALL Sign letter to Stop CIA Persecutions.
In July, Obama sanctions the brutal crackdown of those marching for freedom in Iran and sides with the mullahcracy. He stands silent about the Iranian regime's mass executions, mass rape and murder.
July 2009, Obama plans to slash US nuclear arsenal.
September 2009. Bolton on Obama at the UN: "This is the most radical anti-Israel speech I can recall any president making" "I have to say I was very shaken by this speech."
October 2009, Obama offers millions in Muslim technology fund.
November 2009, Fort Hood Jihad Cover up: Obama Urges Congress To Put Off Fort Hood Probe, Warns Against Turning Tragedy Into "Political Theater."
November 2009, Obama offers the Taliban control of the Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan, Kunar and Nuristan provinces, in return for a halt to the Taliban missile attacks on U.S. bases.
November 2009, Obama Reaches out to bloody Jihadis in the Philippines.On Thanksgiving eve, Obama issues a special Hajj message to the world's Muslims.
December 2009, Obama's "Non-Religious" White House Christmas and No Christmas Gifts for his Kids.
February 2010, Obama names a Hafiz to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. "And as a hafiz of the Koran, [Hussain] is a respected member of the American Muslim community," Obama said in his message to the Doha meeting, using the term for someone who has mastered and memorized the Muslim holy book.
February 2010, Obama cuts US space program, orders NASA to work with Muslim countries.
February 2010, covering up for jihadists in the White House.
Obama's counter terrorism adviser, John Brennan, Involved in Obama Passport Breach.
March 2010, Obama Obsession with Islam: Calls 'entrepreneurship summit' with Muslims.
April 2010, Libyan Pres Gaddafi Praises Obama: "Barakeh Obama is friend" "He is of Muslim descent, his policy should be supported...."
May 2010, Obama's Counterterrorism Adviser Calls Jihad "Legitimate Tenet of Islam."
May 2010, White House Pro-Terrorism John Brennan Speechifies in Arabic, Equates Terrorists with Shoplifters, Lawmakers Call for his Firing.
June 2010, Obama equivocates on the jihad warship convoy (affectionately named a "flotilla" by the media): Obama "Expressed a Deep Regret Over Loss of [Jihadist] Life."June 2010, Obama Administration to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at UN.Press conference earlier this week: First flagless "President." Ouch. What a disgrace.


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Doug and Amber were madly in love and married during their college years. Driven by the "dream" of a prosperous life together - Amber worked two jobs to put Doug through school. Soon after they shared in his business success and celebrated the birth of their precious, beautiful daughter.
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ISRAELI ground forces are on standby to enter the Gaza Strip after the Israel Defence Forces said they had hit more than 100 "targets" in the besieged coastal territory, an offensive that began with the assassination of Hamas commander Ahmed al-Jabari in a missile strike in Gaza City.
In response, Hamas' armed wing warned Jabari's assassination "had opened the gates of hell" and vowed its militants would "continue the path of resistance".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the military was "prepared to expand" its operation.
The IDF said its actions were part of a wider Israeli operation against militant groups and weapons sites in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, and were prompted by a wave of rocket attacks against Israel.
Gaza's health ministry said 10 civilians had been killed, including two young children – an 11-month-old and a six-year-old – while at least 45 people had been wounded, 10 of them in critical condition.
There were scenes of chaos at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, as dozens of seriously injured patients were carried in, while ambulances sped off to collect more casualties.
In southern Israel, residents have been ordered to stay in bomb shelters in preparation for an expected surge in rocket attacks from Gaza. Schools in a 40-kilometre radius of the border have closed.
Hamas, an Islamist movement considered a terrorist group by Israel, the US and the European Union, has appealed for help from the new Muslim Brotherhood leaders of Egypt.
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi recalled the country's ambassador to Israel and called for an urgent meeting of the Arab League.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr called on Israel to stop the strikes immediately, warning any further escalation from Israel "could have negative repercussions on the security and stability of the region".
The US threw its weight behind Israel.
"We support Israel's right to defend itself, and we encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties," US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
"We strongly condemn the barrage of rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel, and we regret the death and injury of innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians caused by the ensuing violence," he added. "Hamas claims to have the best interests of the Palestinian people at heart, yet it continues to engage in violence that is counterproductive to the Palestinian cause."
Thirteen rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel had been intercepted by the country's missile defence system, the IDF spokesperson said, tweeting with tag #PillarofDefense.
"We recommend no Hamas operatives, whether low-level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead," the spokesman said.
Saeb Erekat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee and chief Palestinian negotiator, condemned the attacks as an attempt to "initiate a bloody escalation".
"This exposes that Israel has an agenda for war but not for peace."
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was not interested in engaging in war, but that Hamas' provocation over the past few days had forced it to act.
One Gaza resident, a doctor, posted on her Facebook page as the bombardment continued: "Gaza is under extensive Israeli military attack … the hospitals are already lacking essential emergency medications, and citizens were called for blood donation, we do not have power … we expect more escalation."
The video of Jabari's assassination was posted on YouTube by the IDF. Just 14 seconds long, it is shot from the air, following a car along a street before a missile strike all but obliterates it.
Jabari is the most senior Hamas operative to be killed by Israel in almost four years, since Operation Cast Lead, its three-week assault on Gaza, left about 1400 Palestinians dead.
He was widely believed to have been intimately involved in the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, and played a key role in overseeing the imprisonment of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was snatched by Palestinian militants while on a patrol near the Gaza Strip in 2006 and held in secret locations in Gaza until his release in October 2011, in return for the release of 1027 Palestinian prisoners.
In a rare public appearance, Jabari escorted Shalit to the Rafah crossing with Egypt as part of the prisoner exchange.
Israel's air strikes have prompted anger, fear and panic in Gaza, with residents anticipating a prolonged Israeli campaign. Some are stocking up on essentials, while others are crowding outside the hospital and morgues in a vigil for the injured and dead.
In Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reissued its travel advisory for Israel and the Gaza Strip. The travel advisory has not been upgraded, but it contains new information about the attacks.
Australians have been urged to exercise a high degree of caution in Israel overall, while travellers warned to reconsider their need to travel in Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jericho, and have been advised not to travel in the Gaza Strip, including surrounding areas, and the remainder of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"We strongly advise you not to travel to areas around the Gaza Strip in southern Israel due to the possibility of mortar and rocket fire," the advisory says. "A significant escalation occurred in October 2012. A further escalation may occur following the commencement of Israeli military operations against the Gaza Strip on 14 November 2012."
Australians or their families in need of emergency assistance have been urged to call the 24-hour consular emergency centre on 1300 555 135 within Australia, or +61 2 6261 3305 from outside Australia. With AFP
The original release of this article first appeared on the website of Hangzhou Night Net.


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Based on Telling Our Way to the Sea: A Voyage of Discovery in the Sea of Cortez, by Aaron Hirsh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, August 2013.
On a cloudless morning in late summer, five college students climbed from the sandy shallows into the open hull of a panga, a small skiff powered by an outboard motor, and departed the fishing village of Bahía de Los Ángeles, on the Sea of Cortez. Ordinarily, they would have gone out on the water with me—I was teaching their field course in ecology and evolutionary biology—but this was their day off, and they had hired a local to take them fishing.
From the stone terrace of the Vermilion Sea Field Station, I watched the boat carve a white V through placid water, heading straight toward the sun. It was early yet, and the small desert islands, the angels of Bahía de Los Ángeles, were dark silhouettes, afloat at the midline of molten sea and fiery sky. Five hundred feet from the beach, the outboard fell silent and the boat glided to stillness. Through binoculars, I watched my students drop fishing lines over the rails. At first I worried that their driver had decided to save gas, and this was to be their fishing trip. But when I saw a line come up twitching with a four-inch silvery fish, I realized they were merely gathering bait. After they had reeled in several dozen small sardines, the outboard started again, and they headed toward the islands and out of sight. I know what happened next because they told me about it later, when they returned to shore.
In the shadow of Isla Piojo, they caught two splendid yellowtail. Then came a third strike. The rod bowed and shuddered, but the young woman holding it managed to crank the line slowly in. From the way the fish was fighting, the guide judged it to be another large yellowtail. And indeed, when it came nearer the panga, he saw the flash of a silver flank before the jack dove hard, as they sometimes do when they first catch sight of the boat. Then, all of a sudden, the fighting ceased. Lamenting the loss of the big one, the young woman slipped the rod's long handle back into its holder.
Strangely, though, the rod remained ever so slightly arced, and several seconds later, the reel shrieked as line dragged out. With everyone, including the guide, taking a turn with the rod, the line was eventually reeled in. And when at last the guide plunged his gaff into the water, what he levered over the boat rail and let spill into the bow was a five foot squid, its arms writhing like a nest of snakes, the tubular body flashing blood-red. The guide clubbed it several times between its round, watery eyes, and finally it went still, the mucosal red skin fading to milky white.
A week later, back on campus, I received an alarmed email about another strange occurrence aboard a fishing boat, this one thousands of miles away, off the east coast of Japan. On the deck of Diasan Shinsho-maru, a ten-ton trawler, three crew members realized something was wrong when their winch creaked and groaned. Leaning over the rail, they saw the problem: the gathering net appeared to be full of slimy brown mud. Only it wasn't mud. It was jellyfish. Each creature was at least three feet across, and there were hundreds of them. The winch complained more loudly, the ship listed toward the laden net, and then capsized, tipping the trawlermen into the sea.
At first look, these events appear unconnected. They occurred on opposite sides of the planet. On the tree of life, Humboldt squid are as remotely related to Nomura jellyfish as we are. And yet, in another sense, the incidents are linked. They are signal cases of a phenomenon that has begun to unfold with increasing frequency in the world's oceans: The impacts of fishing are propagating through oceanic ecosystems in unpredicted ways. In the Baltic Sea and the South China Sea; in places once known for cod and others known for sharks; in the most productive waters and those less prolific—in short, all over the world, oceanic ecosystems have lately been tilting into new and different arrangements. Unexpectedly, some of these novel configurations seem to be stable in their own right. Various words have been used to describe the striking property: homeostasis; hysteresis; a certain dreadful stickiness.
Extinction, the bromide goes, is forever; but if ecosystems really can get stuck in new arrangements, it would mean that not only species, but whole natural systems, could be irrevocably lost. And such losses could be grave for a large number of people. Each year, humanity captures and keeps about 80 million tons of fish from the sea. It's a number worth staring at: 160,000,000,000 pounds, which provides almost half the world with at least a fifth of its animal protein. In many places, it is a resource without which humans cannot survive.
According to formerly dominant paradigms in oceanography and marine ecology, impacts—even our very substantial impacts—were not supposed to cascade through oceanic ecosystems, and such durable transformations were not anticipated. More broadly still, the ecological rearrangements, and especially the way scientists are now talking about responding to them, mark a shift in our basic relationship with the ocean. So this is a story of conversion not only in the sea, but also in the way we think of it.
One way to think of an ecosystem is with a diagram of its food web. In such a picture, each oval represents a species, or a natural grouping of them, and each arrow signifies what ecologists would refer to as transfer of biomass, but which you could just as well call eating.
What ecologists call trophic cascade has, I'm afraid, entered popular consciousness mainly through managerial missteps. Macquarie Island is a recent example. Halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica, Macquarie is a World Heritage Site, on account of a rich unusual flora and millions of nesting sea birds. Aiming to protect those birds, managers eradicated thousands of feral housecats. At first the plan worked: bird colonies grew. But soon, exotic rabbits, which had previously been hunted by housecats, began to do what rabbits are famous for. Proliferating, they mowed down the vegetation, facilitating erosion, which swamped and undermined bird colonies. This illustrates trophic cascade because a change at the top of the food web—trophe is Greek for food—cascaded down to levels below: the cat oval vanished; the rabbit oval swelled; the plant oval contracted. The mudslides are more of a metaphorical flourish on the basic concept.
Happily, not every example is so grim. In Yellowstone, the reintroduction of wolves stopped Elk from browsing down all the trees along riverbanks, and thus helped to restore healthy riverine ecosystems. But in both kinds of story—dispiriting and heartening alike—it's worth noting a common pattern: The population on any given floor of the food web behaves in contrast with those on adjacent floors, but in concert with those that are two floors away. Cats, on floor three, decline, and so do plants, on floor one. This pattern can hold true even in ecosystems with many levels, and ecologists look for it to see how an ecosystem works. If they find it, they say an ecosystem is subject to top-down control. For instance, cats or wolves, up above, determine the abundance of everyone below.
But that's all on land. Marine scientists have not traditionally thought in terms of trophic cascades and top-down control. Rather, they've assumed that the abundance on any given floor of the food web is determined mainly by the supply of nutrients from the floors below, and not by the impact of consumers up above. There are good reasons for supposing as much. In some parts of the ocean, food supply is patchy and sporadic; when there is food, there's too much for consumers to make a dent. Also, in a lot of oceanic ecosystems, many different consumers feast on any given floor of the food web. As a result, a contraction of one population near the top, such as yellowfin tuna, could be compensated for by expansion of another, such as albacore; and in that case, only changes in productivity coming from below will alter the overall abundance on the floors overhead.
The reason this distinction—top-down versus bottom-up control—is so important is that it drastically affects predictions about the impact of fishing. If control is from the bottom up, as oceanographers and fishery scientists have generally supposed, then the shock waves of our yearly 80 million ton scoop may propagate a short ways upward, to hapless animals like seabirds and seals, but will mostly be confined to the populations we actually fish. If control is top-down, however, our impact will cascade in complicated ways, causing floors below to become alternately crowded and empty, potentially compromising the food supplies of some species we fish, and broadly rearranging ecosystems. For any manager, then, the bottom-up consensus was enormously comforting.
And yet, despite all the good reasons trophic cascade ought not transpire in the sea, that's just what seems to be happening. Reading the literature and talking with marine scientists from a variety of disciplines, one gets the sense that the acknowledged domain of trophic cascades—the geographic area in which, according to most scientists, they are in fact occurring—has been spreading slowly but steadily outward, from small confined systems, like ponds and streams, out onto the littoral, across shallow reefs, and finally into the deeper waters of the ocean.
The very first demonstration of trophic cascade occurred in 1960, in little ponds, where the Czech ecologist Jaroslav Hrbacek observed that phytoplankton, the tiny photosynthetic organisms that fuel the food web in every body of water, actually increased their abundance in the presence of small fish. The fish, Hrbacek realized, were suppressing zooplankton, which occupy floor two in underwater ecosystems. In the late sixties and early seventies, top-down control was documented in several studies at the ocean's edge, and in 1974, a clear case of trophic cascade was detected in the Aleutian Islands. Sea otters had been extirpated from the islands about two centuries before, by Russian fur traders. Around islands where otters were now recovering, sea urchins were held in check, allowing a lush kelp forest to regrow. Where otters had yet to return, urchins kept the stone bare.
Even by the late nineties, however, top-down control was not generally considered relevant off the coast. John Steele, an eminent scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, registered the view of most marine scientists when he wrote, in 1998, "The massive perturbations in marine fish stocks might be expected to have impacts on their food supplies, yet I do not know of any cases where this has been demonstrated in the sea."
But then, over the following decade, cascades came to light all over the oceans. The Aleutian cascade stretched out into open water when ocean-roving killer whales abruptly and mysteriously changed their behavior: they began eating sea otters, and just as one would have expected, based on the earlier findings, the effects cascaded down to kelp forests, many of which soon gave way to urchin barrens. Other cascades were found in the North Pacific, involving salmon, and then on both sides of the North Atlantic, involving cod. Ransom Myers, a prescient and industrious marine biologist who had for years been assembling a database tracking the world's fisheries, discovered that, off the east coast of the United States, fishing for large sharks had unleashed their prey, including rays, which were now demolishing shellfish beds. His study received much attention, not only because it was scientifically compelling, but also because the plague of rays had just brought an end to North Carolina's century-old scallop fishery.
Three days before the study was published in Science, Myers died, aged 54, of a brain tumor, but his ideas and database fed into many more publications. Among the most important was a synthesis led by Boris Worm, a protégé of Myers' at Dalhousie, and Ray Hilborn, a fisheries scientist at the University of Washington. Published in 2010, the work showed that, worldwide, the large deepwater fish that occupy the top of marine food webs had declined by 56%, while their prey—smaller, schooling fish—had actually increased by 143%, likely because they were released from top-down control. "Top-down interactions cascading from fishers to predators and their multiple prey species," the authors concluded, are "important structuring forces."
If this conclusion, held alongside the decades-old consensus that top- down control is unimportant in the oceans, looks like nothing short of a paradigm shift in marine science, what seems a bit mystifying is the creepingly slow conceptual migration that preceded it—the half-century it took for theories of trophic cascade to move from small ponds out to the open ocean. It's especially puzzling because, in truth, there were revealing data floating around all along—albeit in rather obscure places—and the relevant theory, too, was already in circulation. As early as the late seventies, for instance, a South African marine biologist had suggested that shark-exclusion nets around Durban's beaches had killed so many large sharks that their prey were proliferating. And in the mid-eighties, a group of mathematical ecologists, meeting to talk about fisheries, asserted that managers ought to pay more attention to threats posed by trophic cascade.
So why did it take so long for the idea to take hold? It's possible that the greatest intellectual success of late-twentieth century oceanography incidentally confounded thinking about top-down control. Beginning in the late-eighties, oceanographers realized that every few decades or so, entire ocean basins—the North Pacific or the North Atlantic, for instance—experience sudden shifts in their patterns of circulation, drastically changing physical conditions for the entire region. Oceanographers called these events "decadal switches" or "regime shifts." Unfortunately, ecologists had recently been using the term "regime shift" to describe what happens when you extirpate a top-predator and the effects cascade through the entire system. But obviously, the common term belies contrasting explanations of change. And dangerously, the two explanations confounded each other.
In the North Sea, for instance, a decadal switch—of the physical, oceanographic variety—occurred in the late eighties. But this was also a time and place of intensive fishing. So was the upsurge of herring due to shifts in the physical environment, or to the cascading effects of cod fishing? Here's an analogy that gets at the difficulty: imagine how hard it would have been to prove that global warming is caused by humans if, just as climatologists were struggling to get their message across, astrophysicists had made the fantastic new discovery that the sun sometimes shifts to hotter temperatures.
The coastal towns of eastern Canada, snug clusters of peaked roofs and weathered wood, tucked in rocky coves so as to be near the boats but out of the weather, are communities that cannot survive without their haul from the sea. So when the groundfish collapsed in the early nineties, and the government, intent on bringing them back, declared a moratorium on fishing cod, haddock, and pollack, the towns unraveled. In the first year of the ban, forty thousand jobs were lost, most by people with little to fall back on. Thousands of families up and left. Schools closed. Rates of mental illness rose.
All that by way of sacrifice, and still, the groundfish did not recover. Many took this as clear evidence that new physical conditions, ushered in by a decadal switch, had to be to blame; otherwise, why wouldn't the fish have rebounded? Moreover, a similar case of strangely stubborn collapse was unfolding, at the very same time, in the cod fishery of the Baltic Sea, so it seemed plausible that the parallel tragedies had their common origin in a vast, North Atlantic decadal switch. But the groundfish's failure to recover, it now appears, does not necessarily implicate a decadal switch, because it can also result from the inner-workings of a food web.
Kenneth Frank, at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, was able to reconstruct the cascade that transpired off the coast of Nova Scotia. As groundfish numbers fell, their prey—herring, capelin, and sand lance—surged, causing a decline in zooplankton and an expansion of phytoplankton: a cascade through four full stories of the food web. Still, nothing in this picture suggests why the process did not simply reverse itself once the fishing relented. But researchers from Germany and Sweden, studying the Baltic catastrophe, recognized that the extended trophic cascade may have triggered another kind of change, a bit like a Rube Goldberg machine that, as its final step, opens a trapdoor beneath itself.
Looking at our diagram of ovals and arrows, you'd think an explosion of herring and their ilk would be a boon for cod, as it would send more food up the system. But what if the herring are not only feeding cod, but also competing with their young for food—or even making them into food? In that case, an unleashed herring population could prove disastrous for an overfished cod population: the herring provide more food than adult cod can possibly eat, but eat as many young cod as the adults can possibly provide. And now the trophic cascade, beyond resizing all the ovals in our diagram, has actually rewired the arrows: what was prey has effectively become predator. "Regime shift" is just the right term: a different species is on top, and it uses its newfound power to stay there.
It now seems likely that some rewiring has occurred not only in the Baltic, but also across the northern Atlantic, and elsewhere in the world, as well. In fact, it has probably contributed to what many consider the grandest oceanic collapse of all. The world's most productive water—in the simple terms of how much biomass is made there every day—is not off the coast of Peru, where anchoveta presently holds the title of world biggest fishery, but rather off the coast of Namibia. There, the Benguela Current Ecosystem produces more than twice as much phytoplankton as Peru's Humboldt system, and about nine times as much as the California Current system. The biomass of sardines alone in the Benguela Current was once about 25 million tons, or about a third of the entire world's current annual take from the sea.
But after sardines and then anchovies collapsed under enormous industrial fishing operations, so much plankton was left to sink unconsumed that the ecosystem tilted more and more frequently into a poisonous state that had always been a threat: a thick layer of detritus, rotting on the ocean floor, disgorges hydrogen sulfide gas, which fizzes to the surface, stripping out oxygen and killing more sealife along the way. So vigorous is the ocean's belching that even the sea breezes grow fetid and corrosive. Released from predation and competition, and favored by the low-oxygen conditions, jellyfish and bearded goby—a bizarre fish that survives hypoxia and eats sulfidic mud—have taken over, and now, it appears, locked in their advantage over sardines and anchovies. Unfortunately, humans can't eat all that much jellyfish, bearded goby, or sulfidic mud.
So what should be done? Or rather, now that we've realized that trophic cascades and ecological regime shifts can, in fact, happen in the ocean, what should we do differently? The case of coastal Nova Scotia gets at what a hard question this really is. The collapse of groundfish led to an expansion not just of herring, but also, somewhat later, of large shellfish, which adult cod had previously eaten. And in this case, the newly insurgent prey—shrimp and crab—have now exceeded the erstwhile value of groundfish they replaced. So after many fishermen became poor, some recovered, and some others have lately become almost rich. And now it's not even clear what the goal of management ought to be: Bring back the cod, and jeopardize the shrimp and crab? Or should we, instead, view our record of serial depredation—catastrophic though it's been for some—in a more positive light? After all, our history of failings has at least revealed to us various possible configurations the ecosystem can adopt, and such knowledge might—might—enable us to manage with ecological savvy, tilting the system in the very directions we desire, and thus maximizing its value.
As alluringly sophisticated as this prospect sounds, there are reasons to approach it warily. Our record in Management 101: Sardines is spotty at best, so it's not exactly clear why we ought to feel confident in Management 505: Advanced Oceanic Biomanipulation. It was this very course, in fact, that led managers to break the Benguela. Shortly after the sardine population had suffered a severe decline, managers tried to make room for it to rebound by heavily fishing anchovy, the sardine's competitor. But as we know, what they facilitated was not the recovery of sardines, but rather the rise of jellies and bearded gobies.
A fundamental challenge, it seems, is that the systems we might try to manipulate are so complex and dynamic as to be largely unpredictable. With all those different species, each with its own idiosyncratic natural history, each somehow linked with so many others, it's awfully hard to be sure that pressing any given circle, and thus tugging certain threads, is going to have exactly the predicted effects. You might set out to support cod or crab, and end up bouncing something else altogether. After all, no one had much idea what bearded gobies could do until they overcame the Benguela.
Another challenge is that the instruments with which we press and tug on the web are awfully blunt: trawls, vast nets, mile-long lines with hooks dangling below. Such tools cannot be used to trim a single circle in the diagram; rather, they harrow whole neighborhoods. As a result, to get that annual 160 billion pounds of seafood we keep, we scoop out fully twice as much. So manipulating an oceanic ecosystem might be like doing cat's cradle tricks while wearing boxing gloves.
And we haven't given a thought to the ecological effects that are not depicted in our diagram. Remember that success story of restoration in Yellowstone? It turns out the wolves helped repair riverine woodlands not so much by killing deer as by terrifying them, and thus keeping them from lingering lazily riverside, browsing down their favorite herbage. What ecologists call "the landscape of fear" is now known to be important in seascapes, as well. And the implication is that we cannot stand-in, ecologically speaking, for the predatory fish we take out, even if we also catch the prey they would have eaten. Sophisticated as we may be in our understanding of the trophic web, we can't pull off a good impersonation of tuna.
For all these reasons, Management 505: Advanced Oceanic Biomanipulation is maybe a harder course than we'd like to enroll in. But unfortunately, we may have little choice in some cases—when things have gone desperately awry, for instance, as they have in the Benguela; or when an ecosystem is just now wobbling between different paths, and even conservative management—keeping the recent status quo—represents a momentous choice. Ironically, on the Scotian shelf, where the prospect of oceanic manipulation was brought to the fore by the stubborn collapse of cod, it is now being raised, once again, by the cod's belated and surprising recovery. Kenneth Frank has recently shown how one regime shift may eventually give way to another: The herring population, having gained ascendancy over its predators, became so abundant that it overshot its own food supply. Fluctuations of the population have ensued, and in the deeper dips, the cod may just recover—provided people aren't fishing for it. And so the top-predator, it seems, may soon reclaim its name.
That is, if we let it. And this raises what is, perhaps, the hardest challenge for a program of intentionally tilting ecosystems into arrangements that maximize value. As is often the case in economic arguments, "maximize value" is a phrase that sweeps an awful lot of complexity under a semi-technical rug. The really tough question is: value to whom? After all, cod fishermen and shrimp fishermen are not the same parties. And you cannot decide what to do simply by summing the total price fetched or profit garnered by a season's shrimp and comparing it with that of cod, because the different kinds of fishing entail different sorts of workforce, different distributions of wealth in the community, different ways of life. Deciding to manage for groundfish or shellfish is effectively to make choices in all of these arenas at once. And yet, the dynamics of the ecosystem dictate that, like it or not, a decision will be made.
In Bahía de los Ángeles, too, I have glimpsed what complications may hide behind pesos and pounds, the simpler measures of a fishery's value. The Humboldt squid—that creature my students hoisted from the deep—supports what is, by weight, the Gulf of California's largest fishery, amounting to about a quarter of a billion pounds per year. In view of such scale, it is surprising to realize that, prior to the late 1970s, no one in the northern gulf ever fished for squid, because there were hardly any there. What fishermen pursued instead were large fish, such as tunas and jacks. But then, in yet another variation on the ecological theme, the tunas and jacks were fished down, and their rarity helped open the way for squid. And since squid are voracious predators of just about everything, it is likely that their consumption of young tunas and jacks has helped maintain the new regime.
As in coastal Canada, however, we must at least ask: was the shift, perhaps, a boon? A quarter of a billion pounds is a huge take, even compared to the tuna and jack of yore. And yet, the deeper you look into the value of the largest fishery in the Gulf, the less favorably the new regime seems to compare. To start, Humboldt squid is cheap: a fisherman sells it for about five cents per pound. By comparison, tuna and jack are precious, fetching a few dollars per pound. And it's instructive to cut still deeper into such monetary measures. A fisherman casts aside a squid's arms, tentacles, and head—everything but the mantle, that tubular torso of muscle. So if you calculate what he gets for every pound pulled from the water, it works out to be more like two or three cents. And though this quantity is irrelevant at the market, it is nonetheless meaningful as a measure of hard labor at sea.
For squid, that labor is done at night, when the animals rise from the depths to feed nearer the surface. This makes the undertaking more dangerous, not to mention hard on fishermen and their families. And finally, it's important to remember another way in which average catch and price do not tell the whole story. The predatory fish that have suffered under the squid's recent dominance make up a diverse assemblage of at least six different species. Diversity in an ecosystem often confers the same benefit as it does in a stock portfolio: when conditions are bad for one part, they are good for another, and thus the system as a whole is less prone to spikes and crashes. And since fishermen and their communities are not the sort of investors who can wait out bad times, volatility is as important as average return.
So, no, I do not believe the new regime is better for fishermen. But of course, there are more and less audacious ways to foment revolution and achieve regime shift. To start, you could halt catches of predatory fish; that hasn't really been tried, and, judging from the experience in Canada, it might let the fish rebound whenever the squid happens to have a bad year. More brazenly, you could intentionally overfish Humboldt squid, driving it into decline. Then again, that advice is offered with the caveat that you might soon find yourself up to your neck in jellyfish.
Charles Darwin toppled Homo sapiens from the apex of the Great Chain of Being, depositing him among all the other species in the tree of life. It was, of course, a humbling demotion: man was not so unique and important as he'd presumed. Among the defenders of Darwin's ideas, Thomas Huxley was perhaps the most fervent and determined, for which he earned the nickname "Darwin's bulldog." In 1883, Huxley was invited to give the inaugural address at the International Fisheries Exhibition, in London. He took the opportunity to weigh in on a debate that had lately been heating up between artisanal fishermen and newly emerging, industrial-scale operations. The central question in this debate was this: Should the legislature of the United Kingdom regulate fishing, specifically when and where certain kinds of gear may be used?
Huxley got the answer wrong. Tragically wrong. "I believe," he said, "that the cod fishery, the herring fishery, the pilchard fishery, the mackerel fishery, and probably all the great sea fisheries, are inexhaustible; that is to say, that nothing we do seriously affects the number of the fish."
Even as he spoke, several North Atlantic fisheries were in steep decline. But, as would still be the case more than a century later, it seemed more likely to many scientists that the ocean's own mechanisms, and not the work of humans, had to be the cause. Already the two kinds of explanation—those focused on the forces of the ocean below, versus those suspicious of the fishing boats above—were confounding each other. But the fact that it was Huxley, Darwin's bulldog, who so clearly stated the thesis of inexhaustible seas makes one wonder if there wasn't another reason, besides the confounding nature of oceanographic and ecological theories, that it took so long for scientists finally to grasp that top-down control can in fact happen in the ocean. Perhaps that idea has seemed at odds with the basic Darwinian notion that we are but one twig among many—not atop Nature, but within it. In other words, having toppled man from the Great Chain, it was difficult for Huxley and others after him to see that Homo sapiens was indeed at the top of every food chain. Compared with the ocean's vast shoals and voracious predators, Huxley argued in his speech, fishermen are minute in stature, trivial in their impacts. But could it be that such humility with respect to the rest of the natural world is sometimes tragically misplaced?
Perhaps so, especially if it causes us, again and again, to be taken unawares by the magnitude of our own actions: Top-down control can happen in ponds, scientists thought at first, but surely not in the open ocean; but then we converted the greatest of oceanic ecosystems—the Benguela Current—into our own stinking pond. Regime shifts occur, oceanographers found, when the earth's largest system of oceanic circulation exhibit massive rerouting; but then we proved ourselves a force commensurate with Oceanus himself. Top-down control cannot happen in the ocean, an important argument went, because of the high biodiversity on each floor of the food web; but then we cleared out whole stories all at once, and regime shifts ensued.
My students' fishing tale has always struck me, I suppose, because it is a kind of metonymic enactment: little fish is eaten by big fish; big fish is caught by humans; and finally, big fish is replaced by undesirable species—but not without the help of our fishing line. The Canadian shelf and the Benguela current; the North Sea and the Sea of Cortez—they are all, in a way, theatres of a single, overarching regime shift. And the vital question now is whether the species in power will govern wisely. What happens if we do not is depicted, I think, in the image of a ten-ton trawler, pulling itself over, and dumping the crew in among the jellyfish.
© Aaron Hirsh. All rights reserved.